Egypt’s ILLA raises $2M to diversify its offerings to FMCG value chain

Most FMCG brands rely on a combination of owned and outsourced assets to carry out delivery operations. The variety of both models brings about a fragmented logistics cycle and FMCGs can lose significant value in the process. ILLA is an Egyptian startup that provides full-stack delivery solutions t

Frozen coffee startup Cometeer raises $35M Series B and launches its product in earnest

Gloucester, Massachusetts-based Cometeer has been around for nine years. In that time, the company has built up a mad scientist’s lair worth of coffee scientists, equipment and processes to jolt some fresh life into the industry. Based out of a former frozen seafood facility, the company has

Maritime recruitment platform Seafair gets $5.7M led by General Catalyst

The people who work on shipping vessels are vital to world trade, but they still experience a lot of arcane hiring processes. Many lack transparency about important things like pay or even the working conditions of the ships they will spend months on. Maritime recruitment platform Seafair was creat

Aiven snags $60M investment on $2B valuation, up from $800M in March

Aiven, a Finnish startup that helps companies combine various open source technologies with public cloud infrastructure resources, announced a $60 million investment on a $2 billion valuation today. The news follows a $100 million investment in March at an $800 million valuation, a hefty increase i

Deep tech startups in need of funding should consider federal grants

Our team of researchers started CoCoPIE to solve the chip shortage crisis. We're a group of Ph.D.s who aim to power next-generation technology without the need for expensive hardware that takes billions of dollars to develop and years to deploy. We needed a way to bring our idea into action. Fo

Saildrone catches a $100M C breeze to build more robo-boats

The ocean economy is growing in importance, and with it grows the need to map, understand and track the ocean itself. Saildrone has been doing just that with its fleet of autonomous science vessels, and the company has now raised a massive $100 million round C to pursue its ro-boat aspirations furt

What you should know about prepping your startup for the public markets

It’s been an active four quarters for technology IPOs. If you rewind the clock to Q4 2020, we’ve seen megawatt public debuts from tech shops of all sorts. Airbnb recovered from COVID-19-induced lows to list, while Roblox delayed its IPO and went out with a direct listing. DoorDash went

Leveraging customer feedback and data to iterate on your product

How to iterate on product has always been one of the top concerns at startups. But while they previously had to rely solely on customer feedback and instincts, they now also have a trove of data to balance. This dynamic creates new opportunities but also requires a new kind of arbitrage. We discuss

Our Next Energy closes $25M Series A for battery tech with backing from Bill Gates, BMW

Michigan-based startup Our Next Energy (ONE) has closed a $25 million Series A for tech that it says can double the range of EVs, as more and more startups take aim at surpassing the pitfalls of conventional lithium-ion batteries. The 15-month-old company managed to attract major investors, includi

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish downplays idea of a merger to get scale in streaming

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish this morning downplayed his company’s interest in a potential merger — like one with its partner Comcast. At the WSJ Tech Live conference today, the media company exec said the company’s current strategy was to focus on its “organic plan” in st

More African startups get into Techstars Toronto

In March, two Nigerian startups, Treepz (formerly Plentywaka) and TalentQL got into the Techstars Toronto accelerator program alongside eight other companies. The program, held virtually, provided these startups with funding ($100,000 convertible note and $20,000 stipend), mentorship and access to

Dance Church raises $4.7M to get your bootie back on the (virtual) dance floor

Our DJ, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy dancefloor come, thy steps be done, on earth, as it is at Dance Church. The 11-year-old startup, which started back in 2010 as an in-person experience, has seen tremendous growth, especially as people were forced out of dance studios because of C

Emory University is launching a student venture fund to invest in underrepresented startups

College is a time for learning, and sometimes the best type of learning is hands-on, where you come to understand a trade by doing it. Emory University students wanted to learn about venture investing, while figuring out a way to get funds to underrepresented startup founders. They are managing to

With customers like Coinbase and Shopify, remote hiring startup Deel raises $425M at a $5.5B valuation

As more people continue to work remotely, organizations globally have had to adjust — particularly when it comes to onboarding new employees and figuring out how to pay them, in some cases, across borders. As a result, Deel —  a San Francisco-based startup which provides payroll, compl